Free Short Stories

Quick reads for any moment — 100 to 1000 words

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Month: February 2026

The Forgotten Island

The Forgotten Island The small plane shuddered as it flew over the churning sea. Dr. Elena Park pressed her hands against the seat in front of her, staring at the island rising from the fog below. jagged cliffs, dense jungle, Read more…


The Cavern of Echoes

The first time Alex Marlowe saw the entrance to the Cavern of Echoes, it was barely visible—a dark slit in the side of the cliff, half-hidden by hanging moss and creeping vines. The map he held in his hands was Read more…


The Temple of Shadows

Rain hammered down on the jungle canopy, turning the leaves into a blur of green and silver. Dr. Elena Voss wiped her brow and peered ahead, her machete slicing through thick vines. “Are we there yet?” called Tomas Reed, her Read more…


The Lost City of Kharim

The sun had just risen over the jagged peaks of the Zharin Mountains, painting the snowcaps gold, when Lila Thorne adjusted her climbing pack and muttered, “If the legends are true, we’re about to make history.” Her companion, Jaren Cole, Read more…


The Room Above

When I first rented the old inn in Blackwood, I thought it would be quaint. A quiet getaway, a place to write, nothing more. The innkeeper, a frail woman with gray hair pulled tight into a bun, handed me the Read more…


The House at Willow’s End

I first saw the house on a Sunday afternoon. I was driving through the countryside, bored, the sky a leaden gray. The road curved along a small creek, trees leaning inward, branches tangling above. And there it was: an old Read more…


The Lighthouse Keeper

No one had manned the Hollow Point Lighthouse in decades. The paint had peeled in long strips from the tower, the windows were cracked, and the spiral staircase groaned with every gust of wind. Locals said the light still worked, Read more…


The Lantern in Hollow Creek

Hollow Creek wasn’t on most maps. The town was small, gray, and forgotten, tucked between hills that were always shrouded in mist. I had driven past it countless times without thinking much of it, until the night I lost control Read more…


Whispers in the Asylum

The asylum had been abandoned for nearly fifty years, but the town never stopped talking about it. They said the walls remembered. The floors remembered. The patients never truly left. I didn’t believe them—not at first. I had always been Read more…


The Last Guest

The boarding house on Hollow Street had been empty for decades—or at least, that’s what the townsfolk claimed. Its windows were boarded, the paint peeling, the shutters hanging at odd angles. Even the sign swinging above the doorway—Wren House—was cracked Read more…